Emory vs Duke vs Vanderbilt

aigiqinf
Thu, 04 Jul 2013 19:03:43 +0000

It’s nowhere near that simple. US News is only one ranking organization and they change their methodology occasionally to shake things up and sell more newspapers. A full 20%–one out of every five–students admitted to Harvard choose to go elsewhere, even though Harvard also meets 100% of demonstrated financial need.

Do you think that a nontrivial percentage of students don’t choose CalTech over MIT, Harvard, or Princeton? Do you think that some students don’t turn down Emory to attend Georgetown, UVA, or UNC, or NYU even though we’re ranked higher?

Further, US News only purports to even rank undergraduate institutions. There are many other rankings to battle in. UNC far outclasses the graduate education at and research output of Emory, even though we outrank them for undergraduate education in US News.

Rank also matters completely different in different contexts. If you want to go to a top law school or medical school, your undergraduate institution really doesn’t matter. Want to go to a top-ranked PhD program? A 4.0 and perfect GRE scores will not get you there from Clayton State. Going to a PhD program? If The University of Nowhere at Middle is ranked first in your field, you’d choose them over Harvard.

Want to work within your state? A degree from a well-regarded school in your state or region (particularly a large public one) may trump higher-ranked schools elsewhere.